Become a Fan

November 03, 2018

Our prejudices--our tendency to pre-judge people--can be pernicious in real life, but you can use it to your advantage when creating characters for your fiction.

A study at the University of Texas at Dallas found that our first impression of people is based, at least in part, on their body shape, according to a report by ScienceDaily.

Generally, heavier bodies were associated with laziness and carelessness. (I know--unfair, but I'm just reporting the results!)

Lighter bodies were associated with self-confidence and enthusiasm.

Bodies considered classically masculine (broad shoulders, smaller waist) and classically feminine (pear-shaped) were associated with being quarrelsome, extraverted, and irritable.

Bodies that were more rectangular were associated with trustworthiness, shyness, dependability, and warmth.

In fiction, you can choose to use these assumptions to help define your character--or to subvert the stereotypes by, for instance, creating a self-confident, enthusiastic character who also happens to be heavy, or a lazy, careless one who happens to be skinny.

I prefer the latter, not only because it may be a tiny step toward undoing this kind of pre-judgment but also because readers like being surprised and if they subscribe to the current stereotypes, this kind of reversal will surprise them.

September 13, 2018

There are a few bits of writing advice that I run across a lot that I think are bogus and may be damaging your confidence:

"You must write every day."

It's great if you do write every day, but there are plenty of successful writers who don't. Some have periods during which they research and periods during which they write. Some write a lot for a few days, then take a couple of days off. Whatever works best for you is right.

"You're not a real writer until your work has been published."

Was Charles Dickens a real writer the day before his first book was published? I'd say yes.

It may be fair to say you're not a professional writer until you've been paid for your writing, that's just how we define "professional."

If you're writing, you're a real writer. Anybody who doesn't think so just has a different definition of real.

"Your success as a writer is determined by how many books or scripts you've sold."

You get to set your own definition of success.

Is the best-selling writer automatically a better writer than someone who hasn't sold as many copies? Obviously not. The former may just be a better promoter, or have a more powerful agent, or a big publisher pushing his or her book.

My definition of success for myself as a scriptwriter was (and still is), "Am I making a living from this?" That's because I devote full-time to it.

The first three years I wasn't successful because I didn't make enough from writing to support myself. Ever since, I've been successful--although of course there are many, many scriptwriters who have made more money and had more projects produced. I respect and, in some cases, admire them, but I've never found it helpful to spend much time comparing myself to others.

Another definition of success is, "the things I'm writing these days are generally better than the things I was writing a couple of years ago--by my own standards."

"You're an imposter and will be found out."

This is one a lot of people tell themselves. Not only in the arts, although it's likely that it's more pervasive in the arts than in, say, accounting. The odds are that you're not an imposter and if you are, probably you won't be found out.

A belief of mine that may be more useful: "I'm not as good as I think I am on the days I think I'm really good, and not as bad as I think on the days I think I'm really bad."

A couple of useful questions:

When you find yourself worrying about issues like these, ask, "Says who?"

Literally, who says that?

What makes them the expert?

They may be an expert on what works for them, but does that makes them an expert on what will work for you?

September 02, 2018

How can you tell whether your idea for a screenplay or novel will interest anyone?

The other day I taught a 'taster' session for my Script Coach workshop that's running again at Raindance in Central London starting on October 15, on the topic of "How to use loglines to help you write and sell your screenplay.' One of the things we discussed is how to use loglines to test the appeal of your stories.

WHAT'S A LOGLINE?

A logline is a one or two sentence summary of your story (minus the ending), written in a way that piques the curiosity of the person who hears or reads it.

A logline should reveal your protagonist, your antagonist, and the basic conflict. For example, here's a logline for E.T.:

A lonely young boy befriends an alien and has to protect it from the authorities and help it get back home before the conditions on earth kill it.

THE COMPONENTS OF A LOGLINE

A logline should include:

The protagonist - "a lonely young boy"

The antagonist(s)- "the authorities" and "conditions on earth"

The conflict - protecting the alien and getting it back home. Loglines are so short that you don't have time to get into details, but we can imagine that both the authorities and the conditions on earth will create conflict for the boy.

DOES IT PROMPT CURIOSITY?

In this case, if we haven't seen the film, we might be curious about what the alien is like, how an alien can be friends with a boy, what kind of battles there might be between the boy and the authorities, and what he'll have to do to get the alien back home.

Having a logline that arouses curiosity is crucial because usually the goal of sharing a logline is to get an agent or producer to say, "That sounds interesting--tell me more!"

USE THE LOGLINE TO TEST YOUR IDEAS

Loglines are also a great tool for testing your ideas before you start to write, whether you have in mind a screenplay, novel, or children's book. Most writers have more ideas than time, so it's useful to know which one has the most appeal.

You can try out your loglines with friends. You should be able to tell the difference between a polite response and genuine interest.

HOW TO GET GOOD AT WRITING LOGLINES

You can read lots of loglines at IMDB.com (International Movie Database). Just type in the name of a film and you'll see brief descriptions that you can practice re-shaping into loglines.

For instance, here's their description of E.T.:

"A troubled child summons the courage to help a friendly alien escape Earth and return to his home world."

I the earlier version is better because "a lonely boy" is more specific than "a troubled child." "Summons the courage" is kind of abstract. Also, they don't mention the conflict with the authorities, which is a key part of the plot.

TRY REWRITING THIS LOGLINE

Your turn: here's their description of "Get Out!":

"A young African-American visits his white girlfriend's parents for the weekend, where his simmering uneasiness about their reception of him eventually reaches a boiling point."

"Simmering uneasiness," "their reception of him," and "boiling point" all are vague. If you've seen the movie, how would you rewrite the second half of the description to be more specific but without giving away the ending?

If you haven't seen "Get Out!", do the exercise with the IMBD description of a film you have seen.

MORE TO COME...

You can also use the logline to help guide you in the writing process, but I'll save that for another post.

August 12, 2018

An article on Ozy.com reveals, "For filmmakers Elizabeth Delaune Warren and Danya Abt, quirk is key. The eccentricities and complexities that drive people also drive their documentary filmmaking.

'You take someone who’s a potato farmer in Idaho, and you expect a certain thing from them,' Abt says. 'How do they subvert those expectations?'

For Abt, the answer is in resisting the instinct to simplify and instead focusing on those very traits that don’t seem to fit the usual narrative. She believes this is the point at which a character starts to have dimension."

This works great in fiction as well.

The trick is not to automatically go for the opposite--for instance, the pro football player who is an opera buff, or the granny who rides a Harley-Davidson.

That's not to say that there aren't football players who love opera or grandmothers who ride Harleys, but it feels a bit by rote. Instead, it might be a football player whose hobby is woodworking, or a grandmother who coaches a kids' baseball team.

For inspiration, think about the quirks of your family members, your friends--or your own.

"Sure I'm a homemaker, but I also enjoy taxidermy. I've got a moose in the basement right now."

July 05, 2018

Top agent Jonny Geller, who represents John le Carre, among others, offers this writing tip on the Curtis Brown site:

"Every character you write is living a moment in time and it must be true and real in the moment. It must also hint at a past and to an unknown future that we care about."

Let's break that down.

TRUE AND REAL IN THE MOMENT

As well as having a general idea of who our character is we need to know who they are in the moment we're writing about. What are they feeling at this point and how is that feeling influencing their action?

HINT AT A PAST

Of course, none of us are separate from our past, so another thing to consider is how the character's emotions and actions are being influenced by what has gone before.

We don't we don't need to spell that out; as Geller says, a hint is enough. The hint doesn't have to be in the form of dialogue (although it can be).

For instance, sometimes the pictures on the wall, or a piece of jewelry, or an unexpected reaction can do the job. If the character reacts nervously to the appearance of a police car, for instance, that suggests he or she may have had a run-in with the cops before or has something to hide.

HINT AT AN UNKNOWN FUTURE

The character's actions can give us some clues about what's coming up. Again, we want this to be a tantalizing hint, not something that's spelled out. The example of a character who is nervous when he or she sees a police car suggests not only that something happened in the past but that they'll encounter the police again at some point in the story.

THAT WE CARE ABOUT

This refers to the most fundamental aspect of a protagonist--we have to care about this person. That can be because they are likable but it can also be because we find them fascinating but not sympathetic.

WHEN TO CHECK FOR THESE

I think these criteria are best applied during the planning and re-writing phases. If we get too caught up in applying them in the writing phase, it can stop the flow.

---

For more ideas about creating characters who come alive on the page, see my book, YOUR WRITING COACH, published by Hachette and available from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.

May 28, 2018

Once in a while I read about a successful writer who cheerfully declares, "I never know what's going to happen next, I just start writing and let the characters lead me."

Please, can you send some of those characters my way? My characters lead me, too, but usually into a dead end or another story altogether. They like going off road.

My hunch is the few writers who claim to write without a map actually do have one in their subconscious mind, and they've been at the writing game so long that their internal alarm system warns them when they're about to head into a dead end.

Either that or they're lying; throwing planning to the wind sounds much more romantic than sweating over an outline.

Christopher Markus, co-writer of "Infinity Wars," told the New York Times, "we're never writing without knowing where the end goes."

By the way, if you feel that movie was too fragmented, the writers probably wouldn't disagree. Co-author Stephen McFeeley noted, "Had we started from scratch, we would not have chosen six damn McGuffins [the infinity stones]. That's not helpful. It was difficult to get all that in." Once they knew that was the end, though, they were locked into that particular journey.

Having a strong ending is important--and difficult. Lawrence Kasdan, writer on "The Empire Strikes Back," in the same NY Times article said, "All the suspense about Act III is, how will this be resolved? People are always disappointed by the third act. 'That's all you can think of?'"

I've mentioned before that my process is kind of a hybrid. I do know the ending and usually a few key plot points, but I allow myself to write freely for about the first quarter of the project. For a screenplay that would be the first 30 or 40 pages. Then I stop and plan the rest, although not scene by scene, just the key developments. For a feature script that might be roughly a dozen important events or turning points.

I'm not suggesting you use that method, although you might want to give it a try. You have to find what works best for you, what keeps you on track without making you feel too restricted by the plan. But for sure knowing where you want the story to end will make the entire process easier.

April 25, 2018

How do you construct a storyline that does justice to all the characters in a large ensemble?

An extreme version of that problem confronted the writers of Avengers: Infinity War.

One of the writers, Christopher Markus, described their solution in an interview with SYFYWire:

"It all started to balance out once we realized that Thanos [the villain] is the main character; he's the protagonist of this movie. He is actually the driving force. He will dictate everything that happens in the movie. Until his story or the ramifications of his story interact with certain characters, they're not in the movie. He is pulling people into the drama."

You may not have that kind of villain in your storyline but a good starting point is to ask what all of your characters have in common. That may be the key to figuring out the best way to introduce the members of the ensemble.

START WITH THE BIG QUESTIONS

It's tempting to jump right into trying to figure out the plot, but co-director Joe Russo describes how they start with the bigger questions:

"We talk about the storytelling, as directors, we talk about what we're interested in saying with the movie, what are the thematics, what's the tone of it, what are some of the bigger targets we'd like to hit."

The theme can become the criterion for whether or not a possible story element fits.

Russo says, "...the thematic question that Infinity War asks is the theme of the Marvel Universe, and can be the theme of any story which involves heroes versus villains: "What is the cost that they're willing to pay? And does the value of doing what's right outweigh the cost?"

ONE SCENE TO AVOID

Markus says, "We had written, at some point, one of those big-ass group scenes. 'Let's get everybody together in a conference room and talk about the threat that's coming.' It was cool because everyone was there, but it was awful."

It's better to let the audience see (or figure out) why and how your group fits together rather than to have an 'explainer' scene full of exposition.

DO JUSTICE TO EACH CHARACTER

Just as is true for us in real life, each character is in their own drama.

Russo describes the process that helps ensure each character's integrity in the larger story:

"It is a very vigilant and disciplined process, of sitting in a room, endlessly, going through the story you want to tell, following the story through each character's point of view. We'll spend a day going through Gamora's story. A day going through Banner's story. A day going through Panther's story. Pulling them through the movie so we understand what their point of view is, what their moments are."

A FINAL SCARY BIT OF ADVICE

A vital question that doesn't apply only to ensemble stories is how you to keep audiences interested throughout the story. Russo offers this scary advice:

"There's a storytelling adage that says, "Write yourself into a corner." Put yourself in a place, on a narrative level, where you have no idea how you're going to get out of it. Breaking Bad is a great example of that adage. Every episode of that show ends in a place where you go, "I have no idea how this is going to continue next week. How these characters are going to move forward from here." And we've always appreciated that as good storytelling. And we love that as storytellers, because that's the great challenge.

Spend everything you have. Push everything as far as you can. Say to yourself, "Welp, that's it. I don't know how possibly there's anything beyond this." And then let it gestate for a while and it's quite possible that you find a road forward after that."

February 22, 2018

Author and TV producer Lee Goldberg has a post on his blog about James Strauss, a "convicted con artist and fake TV writer."

Goldberg has received many emails with horror stories from people saying they've been conned or harassed by Strauss.

A recent one was from a young filmmaker asking whether he should do free work for Strauss in exchange for help breaking in to the business. Since Strauss has zero real Hollywood experience and has stiffed screenwriters, conference organizers, and many others, the answer is a loud NO.,

In 1998 Strauss pleaded guilty to defrauding a teachers' retirement fund out of $400,000. He was sentenced to 21 months. In addition he was accused of embezzling more than $20,000 from a Santa Fe Business while out on pre-release from the other case.

Unfortunately, there are many like him out there, swindling aspiring writers and others.

HOW TO AVOID BEING SCAMMED

If you are unsure about anybody offering you services like matching you with producers or publishers, public relations, promotion, editing, publishing help, etc. do your homework before you hand over money or agree to work for free! Here's what to do:

1: Google their name, the name of their company and anything else you know about them. Go past the first page of results. Smart crooks often set up fake websites full of endorsements for themselves, but under different names.

Many times they'll have a headline like, "Is X a scam?" and in the body of the site say, of course not! They use SEO to drive these sites to the top of Google results, pushing genuine sites down to page 2 or 3 or 4.

In the case of a bogus publisher, I Googled the names of the books they had supposedly published and none were listed on Amazon, nor did any of the alleged authors have websites.

2: If they feature endorsements, follow them up. Ask for complete names and contact details. If all you can get is quotes like, "X got me a big Hollywood deal!" -- Annette F., Detroit...well, that's not enough!

It's true that some people who give an endorsement don't like to give their full names and email addresses but the person in question should be able to give you at least a few who are willing to be contacted via email.

3: If the endorsements also feature photos, do a reverse image search.

First, go to http://images.google.com/ and click on the camera button and upload the image (you can usually click and drag it off the page on the person's website). Or you can drag and drop it into the search blank on the Google image search page.

Then also use TinEye, the simple instructions are at www.tineye.com. Both are free to use and sometimes an image source pops up on one but not on the other.

If you're dealing with a con artist, the image may turn out to have been sourced from a stock image site. That turned out to be the case with one subsidy publisher I looked into a couple of years ago.

4: Ask for specifics. For instance, if they say they can get you in the door at a studio, ask whom they deal with there--who is their contact?

That may be enough to scare them off.

If they're brazen they may say, "Spielberg, of course!" Don't be afraid to email that supposed contact, tell them what you've been told and ask if they have a relationship with the person making the claims.

5. Spread the word. If you find somebody is deceiving people, spread the word via your blog, Facebook, other social media and to relevant groups (like writing groups) and organizations.

Be sure to stick to the facts. Don't say, "X is a con artist and fraudster!" Instead, say, "X offered to connect me with producer Y, yet when I got in touch with Y I was told they have never heard of X." Or, "The pictures of supposed satisfied clients on X's websites turn out to be stock photos purchased from iStock."

The reason for being careful to stick to the facts is that scam artists often like to threaten lawsuits. I had a few threatening letters from Tate Publishing, for instance, before they went bust and two of the principals were arrested. But because I'd stuck to the facts, there was nothing to sue me about.

Usually they're bluffing, but getting into even a bogus lawsuit is no fun. The facts should be damning enough. The reason I can characterize James Strauss as a con artist is that he's been convicted of embezzlement. Is he still conning people right now? I don't know but I'd sure avoid getting involved with him in any way, based on his past and the continuing complaints.

January 04, 2018

When you're writing, it's easy to come up with dramatic similes, metaphors, and descriptions that go a step too far. Here are a few actual examples from published books, thanks to a column David Langford wrote a while back for SFX magazine (unlike Langford, I'm sparing the authors their blushes):

"Franklin left his eyes on the floor, took a half step backward."

"His eyes fixed like grappling hooks on AAri's face..."

"...his eyes felt as if they had tendrils growing out of them, crawling like ants across the floorboards."

"Eyes like anguished talons were clutching hers." (Eyes like talons are bad enough, but anguished talons?)

It's not only eyes doing unusual things:

"The wind was shrieking, and so were her legs."

"I said through grated teeth." (Ouch, that one hurts to even think about.)

September 25, 2017

That may be an oversimplification, but a useful one when creating characters for your screenplay or novel--as well as for a bit of navel-gazing. Here's how he defines the four stages:

"At stage one, you are motivated by fear. Everything you do is to avoid punishment or negative outcomes.

At stage two, you are motivated by reward. Everything you do is to get what you want.

At stage three, you are motivated by duty. You’re going to do what you believe you should whether you receive a reward or not.

At stage four, you are motivated by love. You have moved beyond worry for your own needs."

THE UPSIDE AND DOWNSIDE OF EACH STAGE

Naturally, each of these stages has advantages and drawbacks.

Stage one sounds terrible, but there is a kind of protection implied--the fearful person may never take any risks and therefore may not excel, but they will avoid some of the negative events that befall risk-takers.

People at stage two tend to believe that everybody else is at this stage, and they don't see any problem with being selfish. In fact, often they believe that what they do also benefits the greater good (see Ayn Rand, or "What's good for General Motors is good for America.")

Stage three removes the need to make many decisions or question your actions. The path forward is defined for you by your group or your religion.

While stage four sounds great, it has just as many potential conflicts and complications as the others. For instance, imagine a scientist whose research could potentially save the lives of many people--but requires a dedication of time and effort that makes it difficult for him or her to also devote enough time to family. That's the story of many top artists and scientists.

Of course, nobody is motivated by only one of these all the time. Probably over the course of the day, we make decisions based on all four. Even the same action may be motivated by a mix. However, one may predominate.

HOW TO APPLY THIS TO YOUR CHARACTERS

You could use these as a pattern for the character arc of your protagonist. The character could go from stage three to stage four, or even from stage one to stage four, although a change that big that would require intense events to drive it.

You could also decide at which stage the other characters are. That will help you decide what they would do at any point in your story.

Finally, having different characters at different levels will tend to generate conflict, always useful when you're building a plot.

____

Want tips on creating outstanding characters? You'll get them from the top writers of today and times past, in Your Creative Writing Masterclass, published by Nichalas Brealey/Hachette, and available from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.

As the title suggests, the feature reveals the first page of a popular book, asks you to decide whether you'd pay to continue reading, and explains why they would or wouldn't. You can vote and see how others voted.

The most recent example was the first page of Glass House by Louise Penny, which held the ninth spot on the New York Times hardcover bestseller list for Sept. 17, 2017.

I opted for "no", as did 54% of the total voters--but since this was a new post, only 17 people had voted.

The post's author, novelist Ray Rhamey, also voted no.

Like Rhamey, I felt that too much of the first page was devoted to the unremarkable musings of a character I don't know yet. The book is part of a character series, so that might not bother people who have read others in the collection.

Focusing the the first page is an enjoyable way to get yourself to be analytical about what works (or doesn't) to grab the reader, a good source of lessons for our own writing. It's not only browsers who pay attention to the first page, so do agents and publishers. Crafting a strong first page is equally important for screenplays.

However, avoid the temptation to try to make the first page perfect before you write the second and third. That's better left for the second and subsequent drafts, if you want to avoid driving yourself crazy.

---Would you like writing advice from the classic and modern greats? You'll find it in my book, Your Creative Writing Masterclass, published by Nicholas Brealey/Hachette, and available from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.

August 09, 2017

I just started listening to a podcast of spooky stories...and turned to something else after about three minutes. Why? Because the opening was full of general information that didn't feel like it was going anywhere. Neither was there foreshadowing of anything scary or mysterious.

The narrator started with some descriptions of how he had a normal childhood, then told how his father arranged for him to go to college on a scholarship that required him to work for the school. Then he described the jobs he had to do, still in general terms....

Yawn.

Next!

The lesson is that unless you hook us with something specific, we're likely to wander off pretty quickly.

I don't know what happens in the story after the point at which I left, but let's assume that he encounters a ghost. Here's a quick example of how the author could have grabbed the reader's attention more quickly:

"I guess it was the fact that my childhood was so normal that made it hard for me to comprehend what happened later. I grew up...(Now I'm willing to hear about his normal childhood for a bit, thanks to the promise that it's leading up to whatever happened later that would be outside the realm of "normal.")

Or it could have been something specific about his childhood:

"When I was a kid, my parents taught me and my brothers not to believe in superstitions. If anybody mentioned ghosts, my parents laughed and assured us that there was no such thing." (He doesn't have to say any more, we already expect that later in the story his parents will be proved wrong.)

A small detail or a bit of foreshadowing goes a long way--and keeps us reading.

[For useful information on writing your book, from idea through to publication, get a copy of my book, Your Writing Coach, published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)